Comments on: Social Media Overload

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:45:02 +0000

James, the very fact that people, apparent strangers to you, are commenting on your blog and moreover that you are writing commentary for the world to see, is contrary to your discriminating belief that people can't interact with each others, strangers at that, on social media sites.

I'm not making any such claim. Merely that getting hundreds of tweets about what people are doing for entertainment and notices about who's biting whom in various zombie and vampire wars becomes quickly overwhelming with too many "friends."

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:42:36 +0000

James, the very fact that people, apparent strangers to you, are commenting on your blog and moreover that you are writing commentary for the world to see, is contrary to your discriminating belief that people can't interact with each others, strangers at that, on social media sites.

By: Janice

Janice — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:24:05 +0000

"I’m also on LinkedIn, a business network, that serves no discernible purpose." - Really? I guess you've never had to hire someone before. LinkedIn has been a valuable recruiting tool for me and others I know. However, the success of LinkedIn is only as good as the quality of the network you have.

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:28:51 +0000

On a more serious note, I think that norms will spring up about who you can contact and why. I am beginning to think that anyone who sends me unsolicited mail must a) take responsibility for any identity theft b) pay the PO to have it returned to them and c) pay special tip charges. The same goes for unwanted emails.

Indeed cleaning up 'trash' on the internet is a problem. I imagine we will figure that out too.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:19:36 +0000

Well, I have heard of this thing called "sunshine". But it seems that light of such intensity (produced by nuclear fusion no less), would make my laptop screen hard to read. So why bother?

By: Steve Plunk

Steve Plunk — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:01:41 +0000

People sure worry about strange things. Online social networking problems? Too many online "friends"? Get out of the basement and into the sunshine.

By: Alex Knapp

Alex Knapp — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:20:47 +0000

The closest I've ever come to social networking is that I started up a Facebook profile, decided it was too much hassle, and that's it. I have no myspace page. I just fail to see the point. Why wait for a "friend" request when someone can just email me and ask me what I'm up to?

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:40:54 +0000

I suspect that social networking sites are about to start entering their consolidation phase. Basically, what happened with search engines about ten years ago.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:31:55 +0000

I am curious why online personalities like Glaser fret over the issue at all. I have both a blog and a YouTube channel. I have let it be known if one is a fan of either, then he should feel free to add me to either MySpace, Facebook, or both.

I add anyone who I can determine is not a fake spamming profile. I am under no illusion, and neither are they, that that we have any sort of real friendship. It is just people showing appreciation for what I do.

Granted, I do not get 300 requests a day and have 10,000 "friends" already like some high profile bloggers would have, so perhaps it is more troublesome for some, but I would not give the issue much weight. Social networking online is about as frivolous as it gets.